While the rest of the country debates the ongoing fallout from the Pastor Disaster, I want to take just a moment to address another urgent concern – the sagging ratings of American Idol. While American Idol remains a ratings juggernaut, this year’s numbers have dropped significantly from previous seasons. In response, the producers of the show are seeking input from the show’s fans. According to the Los Angeles Times (so consider the source), the producers are focusing on Ryan Seacrest as the potential culprit for the ratings decline. I’ll save the American Idol people the bother of performing serious market research and convening endless focus groups. Seacrest is not the problem. Indeed, the way he effortlessly pulls off Idol’s live broadcasts, shows that have roughly a million moving parts, is a marvel to anyone who has ever done broadcasting with hard commercial breaks. “Hard commercial breaks” means the timing of the commercials is predetermined. Even if Simon Cowell were in mid-sentence or that dreadlocked kid in mid-caterwaul, the show would still go to commercial at the predetermined time. So if the show doesn’t run on time, it becomes a train wreck. It’s Seacrest’s job to keep the show on time and he makes it look easy – which it most definitely is not. For an object lesson on this point (if you can stand it), spend an hour of your life trying to watch brilliant political analyst Chris Matthews try to hit his hard breaks. And, needless to say, the Matthews show is much less of a production with far fewer moving parts than American Idol. Idol’s problem is that it has watered down its product and in so doing, broken faith with its audience. The audience loves the competition aspect of the show. And yet each week, for its “Results Show,” Idol presents a hideously distended one hour broadcast filled with over-hyped drama, irrelevant musical performances, and pregnant pauses galore. Idol used to do its Results Shows in a half hour, and even that felt long. At an hour, they’re borderline unwatchable without heavy reliance on the DVR. This kind of abuse of your customers’ goodwill will inevitably incur a cost. The cost here has been lost fans. It’s particularly ironic that Idol’s ratings are sagging this year since, as the show’s promotions endlessly bray, Idol has its most talented field of contestants ever. Particularly interesting is the dynamic between the two obvious frontrunners, talented rocker David Cook and saccharine, boring teen David Archueletta. In case the previous sentence was too subtle, I think Cook should win. I also think he will because I have an abiding faith in my fellow citizens. Regardless of who emerges victorious, Cook will be a much bigger star. If American Idol wants a ratings rebound, its producers should focus on producing the best show they can rather than trying to figure out how to squeeze a dollop of extra milk out of their cash cow at their viewers’ expense. American Idol viewers have been a loyal lot for the better part of a decade. As a matter of good business, Idol’s producers should try to reward that loyalty rather than exploit it.
